The Sims has ruled over the life simulation kingdom for decades, but incoming entrant Paralives is hoping to claim a chunk of land for itself when it hits early access in mere days and as it heads toward 1.0 with pets, seasons, and pools that may or may not threaten the lives of Parafolk worldwide.
Ahead of Paralives early access launch on May 25, its developer posted a brief roadmap onto social media with a list of features. Between June and September, the team will pump out hotfixes for performance improvements, quality-of-life features, squashing bugs, and general tweaks.
Post-Release Roadmap! from r/Paralives
A first major update will then hit nearer to the end of 2026, followed by other updates that promise pets, weather and seasons, pools, and more during its roughly two-year early access tenure.
Any long-time The Sims player knows how essential swimming pools are to the life sim game - not because of aesthetics or how they might provide a morale boost for sims in need of exercise, but because even the most tame player has lured their least favorite sim into the water before deleting all exits and then waiting for the Grim Reaper.
We also know that Paralives does, thankfully, in fact, let you kill Parafolk by pulling off an evergreen Sims murder tactic: trapping 'em in a room without doors. So, I'm willing to bet pools will send murder rates skyrocketing in Paralives just as they did in The Sims, too.
As always, roadmaps are subject to change and that's doubly true for early access games that are so often nudged in different directions based on player feedback. Paralives is shaping up to be a worthy, colorful contender in the genre, though, so I'm excited for these post-launch additions.
